0/ I am a Barca fan so I was really excited to see this announcement. This has the potential to bring millions of football fans into the crypto ecosystem and also add a whole new dimension to how football clubs engage with their fans. Would be great to see Messi promoting $BAR.
1/ $CHZ announced a similar partnership with PSG in Jan and with Juventus in Nov 2019 and there are plans to do the same with other clubs including in the Premier League.
2/ What I like about the way these token sales are structured is the scarcity factor. There will only ever be 20M $PSG and $JUV. In the case of $BAR, the total tokens minted is 40M. The fan bases these clubs have are massive: PSG has 35M, Juve has 150M while Barca has 300M.
3/ I also like the fact that the sales are fixed price. $PSG, $JUV and $BAR are priced at Eur2 a piece making it possible for fans to participate in the sale. They could have done a Dutch auction for these token sales but that would make broad base participation harder.
4/ I was initially skeptical about the token model but they are surprisingly well thought out. There are some governance functions eg voting on which player engages on social media. It doesn’t over-promise on this front which is good.
5/ We can’t have 20M fans deciding which players to buy or which players should appear in next week’s line-up, although it would be pretty cool if fans get to suggest which players the clubs should target/scout for. That level of engagement is crazy!
6/ The utility features are pretty cool. You get discounts on club merchandise, access to the VIP box, priority access to tickets/matches, invitations to special events etc. They can tier the access based on how many tokens you hold but I am not sure of that is in the plan.
7/ The key is in implementation. Making sure the token creates engagement and provides real utility and not some fringe benefits no one cares about. If done right, demand for these tokens will be very high.
8/ $CHZ is also planning tokens hunts (think Pokémon Go) where people can find these club tokens and $CHZ. That sounds fun.
9/ We’ll be talking to @alex_dreyfus next week about implementation details, and distribution/listing plans for these tokens. I would love to see these tokens traded on a liquid exchange after the initial sale. Adding the speculative element could increase fan engagement.
10/ Over time if these tokens accrue serious value, they could become an additional source of capital for the clubs, allowing them to incentive players and fans. This could create a real economy for the tokens. The token price will also be a new barometer that clubs compete on.
11/ Lastly, we know crypto has always been tribal because it’s community feels so strongly about the project and token. Football and sports tokens will bring this to a whole new level. If you think the BTC vs ETH rivalry is hot, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
